We absolutely loved Barcelona! It was a fun, laid back port city with fun markets and good food and friendly people. We would definitely go back if given the chance--one day wasn't enough!
We arrived in Barcelona by night train around 11am on July 3rd with no real plans besides checking into our hotel, Hotel Jazz. It was kinda refreshing, after the craziness of our schedule in Paris.
We were actually really well rested, for the first time since getting to Europe, which was surprising since we'd spent the night on a train. We were pleasantly surprised though--the rooms was TINY (as in, we could barely fit us and all of our luggage in there), but there was a/c, the beds were comfortable enough and the movement of the train kinda lulled us to sleep. One of my favorite memories from the night was the four of us sitting in the four chairs (which turned into beds when it was time to go to sleep) about 6 inches apart from each other, eating sandwiches from the train station in France and talking and laughing. Something about being in such a small room together just made everything funny. I would have taken a picture but the room was too small for me to stand anywhere and be able to see a big enough portion of the room.
We pulled our beds out around 9pm and fell asleep watching a movie on Landon's laptop. (If you're going to take a night train with anyone, make sure you're really good friends, because we were seriously sleeping about 6 inches apart from each other!) When we woke up the next morning we put on another movie and relaxed on our beds and then ended up falling asleep again and sleeping until about 10:30am because the train was delayed 3 hours because of a wreck and strong headwinds during the night. It was a little frustrating at the time, but in hindsight was probably good because it was by far the most rest we got the whole trip!
When we got into Barcelona we dropped our bags off in our rooms and cleaned up some and then headed down La Rambla--a really fun street in the middle of town with a huge market and lots of people doing little shows and selling things. We enjoyed walking around it and taking our time just enjoying the city. We had some good Chinese food for lunch; it was an interesting place because the menu was all in Chinese and Spanish and our waiter was Asian and spoke Spanish and some English, so we were matching words to pictures and hoping for the best! It turned out to be really good food though.
Since everything closes down in the afternoons in Barcelona so people can take their afternoon siesta, we decided to do the same and relaxed at the hotel for a few hours before hitting the streets again that evening. We walked down by the port and looked at all of the boats (Landon and I kinda have an obsession with boats), did some shopping and got some dinner and then hung out at our hotel and watched Spain win their quarter-finals World Cup game against Uruguay. It was cool to be there in the country that was actually playing, especially since they won. Everyone was so excited!
The next morning it was finally time to board the cruise ship! We had a little time though, so we decided to make the most of our last few hours in Barcelona and took a train over a few blocks to see the Sagrada Familia church, a church that they've been building since 1882 and don't expect to have completed until at least 2026. Pretty crazy. A portion of it is open inside for worship, but it cost way too much to get in so we just admired it from the outside. It was very pretty though, and the sculptings all over it were pretty incredible. The pictures really don't do it justice.
After seeing the church we grabbed some croissants and pastries for breakfast at a little bakery nearby and then headed back to the hotel to catch a taxi to the cruise ship. Honestly, at this point it felt like we'd already had one vacation and were starting our second, since we'd been there for a few days already and seen so much. It was a little weird, but definitely fun. :)
We took a cab to the ship and then waited in line for a little while and then finally we were on! We headed to our rooms to drop off the bags we carried on ourselves and then went exploring a little and ate some lunch. The ship was huge and beautiful--I wasn't sure what to expect (I'd never been on a cruise before) but it was crazy how it didn't even feel like you were on a ship. And, our rooms weren't as small as I thought they would be--it was small, but big enough, and there was a king size bed which was nice.
We basically just hung out and explored the ship that afternoon--we walked all over most of the levels and saw everything we could see. Then, we entered a raffle that the spa was doing and Landon actually won one of the three prizes--he got a free 30 minute session in this sleep/massage machine they had. Lucky! :)
Dinner that night was fun too--it was the fourth of July so Morgan brought some little American flags to put on our table. When our table mates, Clare and Aiden walked up they said something like "look honey, we're at the American table". It was pretty funny--they didn't seem to care though; they were from Ireland and on their honeymoon and just ready to relax for a week. Small talk wasn't too awkward and the food was great--just like I'd always heard cruise food was!
We walked around the ship a little more that night and then hit the sack pretty soon after dinner (we didn't eat until 9pm each night), ready for a fun day at sea the next day!
Coming next: our day at sea!
No comments:
Post a Comment